Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
Communication Sciences, National Acoustic Laboratories, Sydney, Australia.
Trends Hear. 2024 Jan-Dec;28:23312165241227815. doi: 10.1177/23312165241227815.
An objective method for assessing speech audibility is essential to evaluate hearing aid benefit in children who are unable to participate in hearing tests. With consonant-vowel syllables, brainstem-dominant responses elicited at the voice fundamental frequency have proven successful for assessing audibility. This study aimed to harness the neural activity elicited by the slow envelope of the same repetitive consonant-vowel syllables to assess audibility. In adults and children with normal hearing and children with hearing loss wearing hearing aids, neural activity elicited by the stimulus /su∫i/ or /sa∫i/ presented at 55-75 dB SPL was analyzed using the temporal response function approach. No-stimulus runs or very low stimulus level (15 dB SPL) were used to simulate inaudible conditions in adults and children with normal hearing. Both groups of children demonstrated higher response amplitudes relative to adults. Detectability (sensitivity; true positive rate) ranged between 80.1 and 100%, and did not vary by group or stimulus level but varied by stimulus, with /sa∫i/ achieving 100% detectability at 65 dB SPL. The average minimum time needed to detect a response ranged between 3.7 and 6.4 min across stimuli and listener groups, with the shortest times recorded for stimulus /sa∫i/ and in children with hearing loss. Specificity was >94.9%. Responses to the slow envelope of non-meaningful consonant-vowel syllables can be used to ascertain audible vs. inaudible speech with sufficient accuracy within clinically feasible test times. Such responses can increase the clinical usefulness of existing objective approaches to evaluate hearing aid benefit.
评估言语可听度的客观方法对于评估无法参与听力测试的儿童的助听器效果至关重要。使用辅音-元音音节，在基频处引出的主导脑干的反应已被证明可成功评估可听度。本研究旨在利用相同重复辅音-元音音节的慢包络引起的神经活动来评估可听度。在正常听力的成人和儿童以及佩戴助听器的听力损失儿童中，使用时程反应函数方法分析了在 55-75dB SPL 下刺激/su∫i/或/sa∫i/引起的神经活动。在正常听力的成人和儿童中，使用无刺激运行或非常低的刺激水平（15dB SPL）来模拟不可听条件。两组儿童的反应幅度均高于成人。可检测性（灵敏度；真阳性率）在 80.1%到 100%之间，与组或刺激水平无关，但与刺激有关，/sa∫i/在 65dB SPL 时达到 100%可检测性。检测到响应所需的平均最短时间在 3.7 到 6.4 分钟之间，跨刺激和听众组，最短时间记录为刺激/sa∫i/和听力损失儿童。特异性>94.9%。非有意义的辅音-元音音节的慢包络的反应可以以足够的准确性确定可听与不可听的语音，在临床可行的测试时间内。这些反应可以增加现有的客观方法评估助听器效果的临床实用性。
